CONCORD, N.C. — Three former Cup champions say the violence they feel inside the car when they run over the blue curbs on the Charlotte Roval frontstretch chicane compares to what they felt at Watkins Glen before changes were made there.
“It feels like you get a concussion every lap,” former series champion Martin Truex Jr. said Saturday.
Asked about Truex’s comment, two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch said: “Glad somebody said it.”
Former Cup champion Brad Keselowski compared what he felt inside the car as he went over the curbing to what he felt at Watkins Glen, saying it is “definitely as violent. Maybe even slightly more.”
A NASCAR spokesperson told NBC Sports that series officials are looking into the matter ahead of Sunday’s race (2 p.m. ET on NBC).
Although the focus has been on the addition of the Turn 7 hairpin at the Roval, the frontstretch chicane also was altered this year. The right-hand turn in the chicane was tightened, making it a sharper corner.
While it’s easy to tell drivers not to run over the curbing, that’s not realistic.
“The (curbing) over there … if you don’t ramp them (in the frontstretch chicane, you miss the exit, you miss the second set of them,” Busch said. “You have to ramp them just to give you a shot not to miss the exit ones.”
Michael McDowell agrees that hitting the curbing makes an impact.
“It’s definitely not smooth,” he said. “I don’t feel like it feels like a concussion. We have our mouthpiece data. I’m sure we’ll look at that and see what it looks like.”
Several — but not all — drivers wear mouthpiece sensors when they’re in the car. The mouthpiece sensors measure what happens to a driver’s head in an incident.
The curbing in the bus stop section at Watkins Glen was changed ahead of this year’s race based on data from the mouthpiece sensors worn by drivers in last year’s race. The data showed how much of a pounding drivers took inside the car when going over those curbs.